The Ugly Truth About Outlaw Effect's Dead Man's Hand

A little while ago, I wrote a post about Outlaw Effects. Turns out I got some of the details wrong. This led the guys over at Outlaw to politely respond. Turns out they are from Canada and not France, so I guess these guys are more into hockey and beer than... French... stuff. These guys are more likely to say "aye" than "ooh la la" than I previously thought. When the guys were setting me straight I figured I'd slip in a request to try out some of their pedals, which goes to show you what can happen if you just ask because they actually said yes. Let's take a look at the Dead Man's Hand from Outlaw Effects.

Standard micro pedal setup. I've already spent a good deal of time describing the physical pedals here, so now we will mostly look at the sounds this makes. I spent a lot of time with this pedal. I used it as my primary OD on my pedalboard for a set I played a few days ago. It kicked my East River Drive by EHX. I played my 72 reissue Telecaster through my board and into a Fender tube 1x12 amplifier. I found it to be very usable. Most sounds that the ERD made the Dead Man's Hand can follow while taking less than half the real estate. If space and weight are an issue, and when is it not, then the Dead Man's Hand is a great pick. Also consider that the Outlaw's OD is less expensive than the EHX's pedal and you have a real competitive product. In practice, the Dead Man's Hand was able to serve just as well as my main Tube Screamer clone. But how does in stack up against other Tube Screamers head-to-head?

TS Shootout:

Above is a picture of the competitors. From left to right: Digitech Bad Monkey, Outlaw's Dead Man's Hand, a 1985 vintage Ibanez TS-9, and Electro Harmonics' East River Drive.

Round 1: DMH vs ERD

On paper, these two stack up quite well. Both have true bypass, bright LED, heavy duty switches, nice sturdy metal cases, and comparable prices. When played they are very similar as well. They are both chock full of the classic tube screamer type sound. Warm, gritty, tube-like break up at home with lead and rhythm roles. Both pedals matched each others' sounds. This is until I flipped the switch. My assumption was that the switch was there to flatten the mid-hump. It does a lot more. It acts almost like a frequency boost for the highs and lows. There is a big difference in the output when put into the "Aces" mode. The level is boosted as well as the lows. In fact, the biggest notable difference was with the bass. The lows were much more prominent. The ERD left the bottom end behind when the tone knob was cranked. When in "Eights" mode, so does the DMH. But when put into the "Aces" mode, this pedal reaches a territory that the ERD couldn't follow.

Round 2: DMH vs Bad Monkey

The Bad Money is a pedal that many hold in high regard, and yet others dismiss at a cheap copy of a tube screamer that doesn't stack up. I would mostly be in the second camp. This is actually one of the first pedals that I ever bought. It was inexpensive enough for me to afford, and sounded like something I could use. Love it or hate it, this pedal actually stacks up with the other in this list. The biggest noticeable difference with the Bad Monkey is that instead of a tone knob, it has adjustable highs and lows. Set at 12 o'clock the DMH is much more transparent, but with adjustment (lows at 2 o'clock and highs nearly pegged) the Bad Monkey was brought close enough that I had to try hard to hear the difference between the two. Needless to say that there was a lot of territory that the Bad Monkey couldn't explore like the DMH.

Round 3: DMH vs Vintage TS-9

So, it's time to bring out the big guns. Many collectors and modders hold the vintage pedals as a bench mark, something to shoot for. That's why no test is complete without putting the real deal beside the up and comer. Again, both pedals went blow for blow, producing very similar sounds at nearly the same settings. With everything dimed, the TS-9 had a little more high end and transparency. But the same problem was present with the lows. The bottom end just wasn't there anymore. It's the same story with the DMH until you hit the toggle.

The Conclusion

The Dead Man's Hand is a great pedal from Outlaw Effects. I have stated some of my dislikes about how the pedal is put together, but for the sound this pedal is an amazing value. Great Tube Screamer like tone at a fraction of the cost and space, plus the added benefit of a useful boost feature. Don't dismiss this pedal for its affordable price, it easily stacks up to anything in its class.

The Ugly Truth About Outlaw Effects Pedals

Right off the bat, sorry for the long break. I'm sure that all my readers are just holding their breath for another post, but on the list of important things to do blogging falls pretty low. Sorry guys.

To the point... I was online the other day and I saw this new brand of pedal. Excuse my latency, I don't get time to check out every little new thing as it comes out as much as I would like. So I did a little digging and found some neat facts about this odd, little (literally, the pedals are tiny) pedal brand.

Ok, so there is nothing new about micro pedals. Malekko has been making tiny pedals for years. There are all sorts of imitators out there now Mooer is a an import pedal that has gained some traction. They have been value priced but now have climbed out of the bargain bin and became a solid option for a guitarist looking to save stage space. This is due to the fact that they closely resemble some of our favorite pedal and aren't outrageously priced. Along with these there are several "bigger" pedal makers doing compact versions of their already established pedals. This gives a guitarist the option to trade-up and slim-down. All good things, right?

Well... Maybe.

Every Description of these Pedals is Extremely Ambiguous 

When I first saw Outlaw pedals, the first thing that I was attracted to was the price. Make a nice looking overdrive pedal for 49.99 and you have my attention. If you make a nice looking, great sounding pedal for 49.99, then you'll get my money. The fact that these things are tiny did make an impression on me, but I've seen these kinds of pedals before. The fact that there are 4 different dirt boxes (2 ODs and 2 Distortions) is exciting for me. I might have something of a weakness for them, but I'm not going to buy a pedal by cool-sounding name alone. With the Outlaw pedals, that's about all you have to go on. The thing with new pedal brands is that you have to give the customer some idea as to what you are going to get. You have two OD pedals, but how are they different? They are even closely colored (red and orange-ish-red) One does have a toggle, but besides that they look exactly alike. Even the description is vague. The only thing I can get from any description I've read is that the Dead Man's Hand might be a tube screamer clone with a toggle to flatten the mid-hump. The distortion come in two flavors as well, metal and... not metal? If these pedals sound as generic as they are described, then I'd stay far away, but there is really no way to tell.

They are micro Pedals

So I know that you might be thinking, "Duh", but hold on. There is a reason that some of the first micros where compressors and reverbs. That is because those are "set-it-and-forget-it" pedals. You usually use those pedals to set your overall sound. But the popularity of the smaller pedals led to making a wider range of pedal with tiny footprints. This isn't a horrible thing, but if you are like me and you like to change and tweak and fiddle with everything, then doing so with tiny knobs and buttons can be a challenge. For the regular person this become an annoyance, but with someone with larger than average digits or size 15 feet this becomes something more like a guessing game. My foot can easily cover a boss-sized stomp box. Now imagine going to turn on your delay and three of your pedal disappear under you shoe. So you can't see your pedal when you turn it on or off, but you might be able to work around that. Lets talk about the knobs. Most of the pedal are set up with a "large" knob in the middle and two smaller knob above and to the flanks. The large knob is about the size of the top concentric knob of a Boss Metal Zone. If you're not familiar with that pedal just look a pencil and picture a knob slightly smaller than that. The other two knobs are slightly larger than the lead in that pencil. Not exactly something that you can fiddle with on the fly. I'm not saying that all pedals this small are bad, but they come with some down-sides.

They are Made in China 

I know that a lot of things are being made overseas now. I also own a lot of things that are made overseas. I like a lot of the things that I've bought that were made overseas. So why am I complaining that these are made overseas? Well, there are some of the stereotypical thing that you think of when you hear "made in China": Bad quality control, poor assembly, cheap parts. But let me remind you that the same remarks are made about Electro Harmonix and they are USA made... I haven't had any problem out of the EXH pedals I own, or any of the one that are made in China. So what is the deal with the ding for being Chinese? First, Poor quantity control. If you order parts from china then you have to order huge amounts. That order takes weeks if not months to arrive. Sometimes the trip half-way around the world is not a kind one. So if something is out of stock then it might be a change of season before you can get that item. Also the company is french*. Nothing wrong with France, but costumer service might be less that speedy.

(Woops, sorry to the guys over at Outlaw Effects. The company is Canadian, not French, The only evidence I based my assumption on is the fact they offer a English and French langue web-site. You know what happens when you assume!)

Everything Is Small... like tiny

These pedal are small, but all we really notice is the box. If we take a look at the inside, then we'll most likely see tiny parts. Resisters and Caps that are that small are nearly too small to do anything with. Are you a modder? to bad. Want to change diodes? Not going to happen. Knob broke and want to replace? Tough luck. All the standard size parts are not going to work with pedals this size. Not to mention that working with parts this small can be a pain when you have all that parts. Lets say that you brand new pedal goes dead and you need a part. What do you do? Call costumer service, right? You do that. I person with a French accent and a working knowledge of the English langue answers the phone. Let also say that you are able to communicate with customer service and they are willing to send you the part. Hazzah! So they send you the part... From China. Three weeks to forever later, the part arrives. You've probably replace the pedal. So you get your package and remember that you own this pedal. You open up your box and go about the tedious assignment that is repairing small consumer electronics only the parts you are messing with go from children's aspirin to a grain of rice. Have fun with that.